Model comparison

Inkling-Small vs Qwen3.5 Max Preview

Inkling-Small is the stronger model overall, scoring 46.5 to 44.7 on the Noometry Index.

Last verified . 17 shared benchmarks.

Inkling-Small Thinking Machines Lab

46.5

Rank #57 Confirmed

Qwen3.5 Max Preview Alibaba (Qwen)

44.7

Rank #72 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 17 benchmarks with published results for both. Inkling-Small scores higher in 3 categories and Qwen3.5 Max Preview in 5 categories; 7 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in reasoning, where Inkling-Small leads 39.0 to 29.6.
  • Inkling-Small has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

Side by side

Inkling-Small and Qwen3.5 Max Preview specifications
Inkling-SmallQwen3.5 Max Preview
ProviderThinking Machines LabAlibaba (Qwen)
Noometry Index46.544.7
Released2026-07-15—
WeightsOpenProprietary
Context window524K—
Max output1.05M—
Input $ / M tokens$0.45—
Output $ / M tokens$1.20—
Results tracked3317

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Category by category

Coding Too close to call

Inkling-Small: 43.3 (#80), Qwen3.5 Max Preview: 43.4 (#79)

Coding benchmarks
BenchmarkInkling-SmallQwen3.5 Max Preview
LMArena Coding14511488
LMArena WebDev1408—
SciCode48.7%—

Reasoning Inkling-Small leads

Inkling-Small: 39.0 (#53), Qwen3.5 Max Preview: 29.6 (#81)

Reasoning benchmarks
BenchmarkInkling-SmallQwen3.5 Max Preview
LMArena Hard Prompts14241483
ARC-AGI-240.1%—
ARC-AGI-184%—
CritPt8.3%—
Chess Puzzles18%—
Mystery Game Puzzles6%—
Epoch Capabilities Index150.13—

Math Inkling-Small leads

Inkling-Small: 44.9 (#65), Qwen3.5 Max Preview: 37.3 (#99)

Math benchmarks
BenchmarkInkling-SmallQwen3.5 Max Preview
LMArena Math14531473
FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3)46.3%—
FrontierMath Tier 417.1%—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-202590%—
ProofBench6%—

Knowledge Inkling-Small leads

Inkling-Small: 48.3 (#71), Qwen3.5 Max Preview: 41.1 (#104)

Knowledge benchmarks
BenchmarkInkling-SmallQwen3.5 Max Preview
LMArena Expert14421489
GPQA Diamond88.5%—
SimpleQA Verified19.1%—

Multimodal Not comparable

Inkling-Small: 38.4 (#59), Qwen3.5 Max Preview: —

Multimodal benchmarks
BenchmarkInkling-SmallQwen3.5 Max Preview
LMArena Vision1235—

Multilingual Qwen3.5 Max Preview leads

Inkling-Small: 51.7 (#102), Qwen3.5 Max Preview: 56.4 (#21)

Multilingual benchmarks
BenchmarkInkling-SmallQwen3.5 Max Preview
LMArena Non-English14001465
LMArena Chinese14581534
LMArena French14381483
LMArena German14121487
LMArena Japanese13991497
LMArena Korean13551438
LMArena Russian13921472
LMArena Spanish14261470

Instruction Following Qwen3.5 Max Preview leads

Inkling-Small: 73.9 (#112), Qwen3.5 Max Preview: 77.2 (#28)

Instruction Following benchmarks
BenchmarkInkling-SmallQwen3.5 Max Preview
LMArena Instruction Following13971467

Long Context Qwen3.5 Max Preview leads

Inkling-Small: 42.7 (#113), Qwen3.5 Max Preview: 45.2 (#44)

Long Context benchmarks
BenchmarkInkling-SmallQwen3.5 Max Preview
LMArena Longer Query14011477

Writing & Preference Qwen3.5 Max Preview leads

Inkling-Small: 59.8 (#102), Qwen3.5 Max Preview: 66.1 (#39)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
BenchmarkInkling-SmallQwen3.5 Max Preview
LMArena Text14131471
LMArena Creative Writing13301464
LMArena Multi-Turn14201478
EQ-Bench Creative Writing1491—

Frequently asked questions

Is Inkling-Small better than Qwen3.5 Max Preview?

Inkling-Small is the stronger model overall, scoring 46.5 to 44.7 on the Noometry Index.

Is Inkling-Small or Qwen3.5 Max Preview better for coding?

They score almost the same on coding (43.3 vs 43.4); test both on your own repository before choosing.

How many benchmarks do Inkling-Small and Qwen3.5 Max Preview share?

17 benchmarks have published results for both models. Inkling-Small has 33 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3.5 Max Preview has 17.

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